Penelope wishes you a beautiful and happy year 2011!!!!

so do we!

pictures from... last year

These pictures come courtesy of Aunt Barb, who snapped us bunches of times when we visited her last September. She lives near one of the greatest playgrounds I've ever seen: the dunes of Lake Michigan!

snowcat

white christmas

walk at dusk

metamorphosis and hibernation

Do you Michiganders remember those bug boxes we made at Wheatland in September? Well look who's living in one of them. We stuck a fat caterpillar inside the day before the first frost, and within a week he had turned into this chrysalis. Hard to tell if there is still any life in there. We'll keep you posted.

One of Louise and Thalia's favorite winter delicacies... fresh snow puffs and icicle delights. (I do not encourage this habit, but my dissuasion is to little avail.)

It's been a winter wonderland around here, the stove is burning bright and our imaginations are on full gear to stave off cabin fever! Which means that the stuffed animals who hibernate in the girls room all summer (while we're busy outside) have come back to life in a big way.

old fashioned window

a bathroom with a view

let's make it real scary!!!

art work: Camille all by herself

up to a lake named OO

exploring

Nothing like taking the time to wander, even if it is a school-night, and exploring new lands a half hour from home... So at day's end, we found ourselves skipping along an ancient path, in a labyrinth of ancient walls built stone by stone by stone by stone.


The path came to a peaceful spot in the fields where there was once a village. The girls found an old well for wishing and I got many a burr in my stockings... and imagined the Mammoths that once romped around here (their bones have been found nearby).

Photos, as usual, by Gilles... who brought us to this spot, remembered apples for a snack, and did not even get us lost.